1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a terminal connecting structure.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, there has been proposed a terminal connecting structure that includes a male terminal having a cylindrical rod-shaped portion, a female terminal having a cylindrical portion into which the rod-like portion of the male terminal is inserted, and an elastic member that is mounted in the cylindrical portion of the female terminal. The rod-shaped portion of the male terminal is held in place within the cylindrical portion of the female terminal by means of an elastic force of the elastic member. In the terminal connecting structure, the elastic member includes two ring members that are disposed along an axis and a plurality of plate springs that connect the two ring members together and that are aligned in a circumferential direction while being curved inwards. The rod-shaped portion of the male terminal is held while being biased towards an axis side of the cylindrical portion by the plurality of plate springs of the elastic member when the rod-shaped portion is inserted into the cylindrical portion of the female terminal.
In the terminal connecting structure, however, in the event that there occurs vibration whose magnitude exceeds the pressing force applied by the plurality of plate springs, the male terminal cannot be prevented from moving relative to the female terminal, and this causes contacts of the terminals to slide on each other, resulting in a risk of an increase in resistance value being called for by the wear of the contacts.
JP-A-2016-119292 proposes a terminal connecting structure in which a female terminal includes a plurality of indented portions that protrude inwards from an open side (an open side of a barrel that is provided at a rear end of the female terminal) of an inner wall of a cylindrical portion. Specifically, the plurality of indented portions include two indented portions that are provided on an open side that lies on a distal end side and two indented portions that are provided on an open side that lies on a rear end side inside the cylindrical portion. An elastic member has a plurality of plate springs that are aligned only semi-circumferentially thereon, so that a rod-shaped portion of a male terminal is biased towards the open side of the cylindrical portion where the plurality of indented portions are provided. Since the indented portions are not elastic, the indented portions can restrict the movement of the rod-shaped portion of the male terminal, thereby making it possible to reduce fears that an increase in resistance value is called for by contacts of the terminals that slide on each other.
In the terminal connecting structure described in JP-A-2016-119292, however, the plurality of indented portions work to exhibit a wedge effect to increase a contact load applied to the rod-shaped portion of the male terminal This increases an inserting force required in inserting the rod-shaped portion of the male terminal into the cylindrical portion.
On the other hand, although the inserting force can be attempted to be reduced by reducing the pressing force of the plate springs, as this occurs, it becomes difficult to restrict the movement of the rod-shaped portion of the male terminal after the male terminal fits into the female terminal.